While major Big Box retailers have struggled to keep pace with consumer-driven demands for instant gratification, Sears Holdings has come up with new innovations to anticipate and serve shoppers with a new one-day ground delivery service supported by a dynamic DC network.

When an industry is changing rapidly, companies must adapt in order to survive. In this whitepaper, a global publisher was seeking a partner that could mitigate risk and build a platform flexible enough for their shifting customer expectations. The solution enabled the company to rewrite their operations game plan and transform their supply chain.

Join our panel of leading economic and transportation analysts as they share their exclusive insight on where rates are headed and the issues that will be driving those rate increases over the next 12 months.

Carload volume—at 292,266—was down 1.42 percent annually and ahead of the week ending August 6 at 287,329. It was also behind the week ending April 2, which hit 305,905 carloads, marking the highest weekly carload tally since the end of 2008.

Carload volume was flat in the East and down 1.9 percent out West. Carloads on a year-to-date basis are at 9,230,496 for a 2.1 percent annual increase.

Intermodal came in at 235,598 trailers and containers, slightly ahead of the week ending August 6 at 235,568.

Intermodal volumes on a year-to-date basis at 7,222,948 are up 6.5 percent compared to 2010.

Of the 20 commodity groups tracked by the AAR, 11 were up annually. Metallic ores were up 25.2 percent, and farm products, excluding grain, were down 25.1 percent.

Estimated ton-miles for the week were 33.6 billion for a 0.6 percent annual decrease, and
on a year-to-date basis, the 1,037.1 billion ton-miles recorded were up 3.1 percent.

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When an industry is changing rapidly, companies must adapt in order to survive. In this whitepaper, a global publisher was seeking a partner that could mitigate risk and build a platform flexible enough for their shifting customer expectations. The solution enabled the company to rewrite their operations game plan and transform their supply chain.

While it is already reaping myriad benefits from ORION (On-Road Integrated Optimization and Navigation), a proprietary routing platform for its drivers rolled out in late 2013, transportation and logistics bellwether UPS announced big plans for the technology this week.